The WCI Network Expands!

On March 4th of this year, Dr. Jim Dahle of the White Coat Investor and I “marched forth” together, announcing the creation of the WCI Network. In case you missed it, these are the announcement posts from nearly nine months ago:

As the collaboration has proven to be a successful venture, we are growing the network, and I’m excited to introduce you to our newest WCI Network member. If you’ve been a reader of this site for a while, you’re probably familiar with the name already. But first, a little history.

The Origins of the WCI Network

In early 2016, this site celebrated its One-Year Blogiversary. In twelve months, I had gone from planning to publish a post three or four times a month to being committed to publishing three posts per week.

I was spending more time helping people that contact me via e-mail, participate in various forums and facebook groups, and interacting more than ever with a growing social media presence.

I was also working full time, and the home life of a husband with two young boys in elementary school can be a busy one, too.

Blogging and writing is fun! The business of blogging can be lucrative, but for me, it’s not as fun, but it sure can be time-consuming. I had been contacted by a subsidiary of a large publishing company looking to work with me on the advertising aspect, but I wasn’t convinced they understood my blog and its readership.

I reached out to Dr. Dahle, who has been known to say that blogging is collaborative but the business of blogging is not, to discuss the business of blogging.

Over the course of a couple dozen e-mails and a few thousand words in one busy day, we had figured out a way in which we could work together, harnessing the synergy of two physician personal finance bloggers with a different focus and voice.

A few weeks later, my wife and I were off to Salt Lake City, and a partnership was formed.

How The WCI Network Works

The collaborative network has three primary components: resource sharing, content sharing, and cross-promotion.

Among the resources Dr. Dahle and I share are a common business manager who is responsible for working with our advertisers. Thank you, Cindy! We also share ideas on other aspects of blogging like social media, e-mail management, and relationships with other bloggers, including our newest addition.

In terms of content sharing, we alternate publishing each other’s classic posts that we choose to be shared with the readers of the other blog. These posts were originally published about 18 months to six years ago, and even if it was once seen before by someone who reads both blogs, it’s often good review after significant time has passed.

The cross-promotion occurs in a number of different ways. We share each other’s posts on Twitter. We link to each other more often than we might have done before. A post or two of mine gets a mention in the WCI monthly newsletter, and my favorite WCI posts continue to be featured in The Sunday Best series.

Why does the White Coat Investor do this? Is it because we’re now friends and he’s just a really good guy? While I believe those are true statements, it’s also true that he is incentivized to do so. He and our business manager each own a little bit of my Physician on FIRE enterprise. And now Dr. Dahle and I each own a small slice of the newest member of the WCI Network. Who could that be?

When we first sat down last winter to finalize our vision for the WCI Network, Passive Income MD was one site we both had written down on a very short list for potential future additions to the network.

In the ensuing 8+ months, PIMD has continued to grow his readership and hone in on his vision for his own site. The focus, of course, is on growing passive income streams. He also can speak to entrepreneuership as both he and his wife have successfully engaged in side gigs as physicians. He is also part of a two-physician-income household and has achieved financial independence at an early age despite living in a high cost of living area.

In short, he brings a lot to the table, and there are aspects to his life and approach to personal finance that are different from Dr. Dahle’s and mine. His work expands and complements the body of work that currently exists in the WCI Network.

I’ve been reading the anesthesiologist’s posts pretty much since he started publishing them. The following posts have been featured here on The Sunday Best roundups:

There are all the tangible, quantifiable benefits of a blog network and then there are the intangibles that you’ll probably experience as you add more bloggers and each of you FIREs. Many years ago, I was part of a loose affiliation of bloggers and it was fantastic. Just putting a name to it had us implicitly helping one another, even if we didn’t have clear rules about republishing, sharing each other’s work, etc (it was very informal). It’s what’s fun about blogging.

You are very observant, hatton1. The whole plan to keep taxable income under that ~ $75,000 threshold is being thwarted by my own online activities. It’s still a good plan to write about — it should still work for most early retirees without significant online or passive income.

Congrats on joining the WCI Network, Passive Income MD! I can tell you’re such a nice and down-to-earth blogger/person just from reading your blog. I look forward to seeing this partnership grow in the future! ^.^